


The Saga of Gorgeous Blue

by rosefox



Category: Knitting (Anthropomorphic), Vogue Knitting: The Ultimate Knitting Book - Revised and Updated
Genre: Anthropomorphic, Crack Treated Seriously, Gen, Misses Clause Challenge
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-25
Updated: 2018-12-25
Packaged: 2019-09-23 08:42:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,768
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17077055
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rosefox/pseuds/rosefox
Summary: Once upon a time, there was a yarn who lived in a Local Yarn Store. These are her adventures.





	1. In Which Gorgeous Blue Finds Her Name

**Author's Note:**

  * For [BardicRaven](https://archiveofourown.org/users/BardicRaven/gifts).



Once upon a time, there was a yarn who lived in a Local Yarn Store. Her name was Squooshy Bella #412 (Cobalt). She didn’t like her name very much, but she drew comfort from the knowledge that all the other yarns had similarly ridiculous names.

The Local Yarn Store was hidden away in a tall tower (specifically, it was in a converted office on the seventh floor of a rather old and dingy Manhattan office building) and received very few visitors. Squooshy Bella #412 (Cobalt) and the other yarns languished on its shelves. To pass the time, they told stories of customers past, and smoothed out one another’s tangles and snags in hopes that their sheen would attract the next one to come along.

“Do customers really exist?” asked a slubby skein of VaVaVoom #1321 (Neapolitan Ice Cream). She had only just arrived from the distributor and was ignorant of the ways of the world.

“They do,” Squooshy Bella #412 (Cobalt) reassured her. “I myself have seen at least a dozen.” She sighed. “But so many just look and take photos on their phones, and then tell Deborah that they’ll buy it on Amazon where it’s cheaper.”

The other yarns all sighed too. They didn’t know what Amazon was, but they knew it was a threat to the existence of the Local Yarn Store, because they had heard Deborah complain about it on the many phone calls she placed during the long hours between customers.

The bell over the door jingled. All the yarns fluffed up hopefully. The needles perfected their elegant posture in their jars, and the stitch markers angled themselves to gleam under the fluorescent lights. “Look!” Squooshy Bella #412 (Cobalt) whispered to VaVaVoom #1321 (Neapolitan Ice Cream). “I told you customers were real. Here comes one now.”

A person entered the shop. Squooshy Bella #412 (Cobalt) sized her up. She was wearing a hand-knitted cardigan, wool/acrylic blend, worked in one piece on #6s, with big wooden buttons. She sported a beret, 100% merino, expertly felted, atop her long, curly hair. She carried a beige tote bag that said TALK SH*T, THEN KN*T.

Squooshy Bella #412 (Cobalt) gasped and quivered within her label. This customer looked like a _true crafter_. And true crafters were the ones who most often actually bought things from the Local Yarn Store.

“Hi,” Deborah said warmly from her stool behind the register. “Welcome to LYSistrata. How can I help you?”

“I’m looking for a starter knitting set for my niece,” the customer said. “She’s ten and getting interested in all the things I make. Do you have a kit or something for beginners?”

The yarns shuddered, and some buried themselves deep in their baskets or hid toward the backs of their shelves. No yarn wanted to be knitted by a beginner. Just the previous week, a beginner who had bought six skeins of Candelabra #240 (Shimmering Pine) had come back to the Local Yarn Store to return five of them. The traumatized returnees spoke in whispers of the sad fate of their companion: hopelessly tangled and stuffed in a drawer, never to be seen again.

“We don’t carry kits,” Deborah said. “They use cheap materials that cause beginners a lot of frustration. Don’t you hate knitting with that lousy acrylic?”

The customer laughed. “It’s true, I do. All right, what would you recommend for a starter selection, then?”

“Bamboo needles are really nice—not too fast, so her stitches won’t slip off, and light in the hand.” Deborah selected a pair of bamboo #8 straight needles from a jar, and added a matching 24” #8 circular from the pegboard. “Why don’t you pick out some stitch markers in a style she’ll like?”

The customer found a pack with little blue gem charms and put it on the counter. “She’ll love these,” she said. “Blue is her favorite color.”

 _Oh no_ , thought Squooshy Bella #412 (Cobalt), who had, until this moment, taken great pride and joy in being the most brilliantly blue yarn in the entire Local Yarn Store.

“In that case,” Deborah said, “I have just the perfect yarn for her.” And she pulled Squooshy Bella #412 (Cobalt) down from the shelf—all by herself, with no other skeins to keep her company. 

The other yarns sighed quietly in relief. “Good luck!” whispered VaVaVoom #1321 (Neapolitan Ice Cream).

“It’s a lovely bouncy superwash blend,” Deborah said as she put Squooshy Bella #412 (Cobalt) next to the needles and stitch markers. “Enough wool to keep you warm, but never itchy. One skein will be perfect for a scarf or hat. If she likes it, you can always buy a few more for a matching sweater.” 

“Oh, it’s gorgeous,” the customer said. She stroked Squooshy Bella #412 (Cobalt) gently. “And so soft! Naomi will love it.”

Squooshy Bella #412 (Cobalt) blushed a bit. It was nice to be spoken of in such flattering terms.

The customer tilted her head. “Does it have a little bit of a pink sheen? That’s so pretty.”

Squooshy Bella #412 (Cobalt) blushed more.

“Do you want me to wind it into a ball for you?” Deborah asked. 

“Yes please,” the customer said. “I haven’t gotten around to buying a swift.”

Squooshy Bella #412 (Cobalt) whimpered. Other yarns had reassured her that being wound by hand didn’t hurt—not like when her fibers were first spun out on the factory’s big machines, which had left her achy for days—but she had never been wound before, and she was scared.

Deborah carefully opened Squooshy Bella #412 (Cobalt)’s label at the seam, found her ends, and shook her out, draping her onto the old pine umbrella swift. Squooshy Bella #412 (Cobalt) felt terribly open and vulnerable. But Deborah was tender and respectful, snipping her ends right up close to the knot so as not to waste any of her, and only opening the swift as far as she had to. Before Squooshy Bella #412 (Cobalt) knew it, she was wound tightly up into a ball, which felt even warmer and more comforting than when she had been twisted in a skein. 

Deborah rolled up the label and tucked it into her center. Once Squooshy Bella #412 (Cobalt) had been inside the label; now the label was inside her. It was a yarn rite of passage.

She didn’t have to be Squooshy Bella #412 (Cobalt) anymore, she realized. Without her label, she could choose any name she wanted. “I am Gorgeous Blue now,” she declared proudly. “And I am ready to meet my knitter.”


	2. In Which Gorgeous Blue Is Knitted at Last

Gorgeous Blue, Kinetic the Circular Needle, Larry and Fred the Straight Needles, and Jingjing the Stitch Markers cuddled together in their gift box. Today was the big day when they would meet Naomi for the first time.

At first they hadn't gotten along at all. Larry and Fred haughtily told each other how much better straight needles were than circulars. Kinetic zoned out, coiling around itself as it softly chanted hat patterns. Jingjing fretted about one of them getting lost, and argued with anyone who attempted to reassure them. Gorgeous Blue tried to ride above the fray, but it still made her ends knot up to think of being knitted into a lopsided scarf by a young beginner with sticky hands and no understanding of tension.

But as they sat in the box, they came to terms with their fate. Kinetic, Larry, and Fred bonded over a shared disdain of DPNs, and they agreed it would be nice to combine forces to make a sweater. Jingjing hoped they might mingle with other sets and make new friends, and recounted the legends of lone markers who went on exciting adventures under couches and into the deepest pockets of knitting bags. And Gorgeous Blue thought of how proud that young beginner would be to wear such a soft, shiny blue scarf. "I'm her favorite color," she told herself. "She'll be careful with me."

The box was lifted and carried and put down several times. The knitting supplies tried to stay calm as they were shaken about. At last they heard the customer say "Happy Hanukkah, Naomi!" and then there was the sound of tearing paper and the lid was lifted away. They peered up out of the box, wondering, hoping.

A young person glanced in the box and then shrieked with delight, nearly dropping them in her rush to hug her aunt. "It'ssoperfectohmygod!" she yelled. "Thank you thank you Aunt Zohar! Will you teach me? Can we knit together? What will I _make_?"

Gorgeous Blue sagged with relief. At least they wouldn't be rejected and left to gather dust. 

"How about a scarf to start with?" Zohar suggested. "It's a simple rectangle that you can make with just knit stitches, to get the hang of it."

Larry and Fred perked up. "A classic!" Fred declared.

"And a perfect project for straight needles!" Larry added.

"Or a circular," Kinetic murmured, "you can use a circular for anything, knit and purl, purl and knit, back and forth and around and around..." It trailed off, humming to itself.

Jingjing clinked together disappointedly. "We won't be needed for a garter-stitch scarf," they said. "We hope she doesn't forget about us."

"I'm sure she won't," Gorgeous Blue said. "I'll be such a pleasure to knit with that she'll gladly move on to hats and shawls and sweaters and other complicated things."

Alas, Gorgeous Blue had to sit in the box as Zohar brought out a spare ball of very inferior yarn, plain old worsted-weight acrylic in an unfortunate shade of yellow-green. She picked up Fred and Larry (Kinetic pretended not to care) and showed Naomi how to cast on, knit a few rows, and bind off. Naomi was awkward at first, and Gorgeous Blue didn't envy that acrylic yarn, which was being pulled every which way. Some stitches were so tight that Larry gave a strangled yelp, and others were so loose that Fred fell right out of them and Naomi had to learn about fixing dropped stitches. But at last Zohar pronounced Naomi ready to knit with Gorgeous Blue.

Naomi lifted her up and admired her sheen in the candlelight. "It's just the best color," she said. Gorgeous Blue fluffed up against her hand.

Zohar set aside Gorgeous Blue's old label ("Don't lose that," she advised, "in case you want more yarn that matches") and respectfully drew out her center end, leaving her outside end neatly tucked in. Gorgeous Blue was glad to have a moment with such an experienced knitter and know what it was like. Then she braced herself for Naomi's inexpert ministrations.

Naomi carefully made a slip knot and slid Fred through it, tightening it almost enough. "This is going to be great!" Fred said to Gorgeous Blue. "Larry and I will treat you right. And she's got good hands."

"I hope so," Gorgeous Blue said. "This is such a funny feeling!" It was not at all like being spun or twisted or wound. Much of her was still in that cozy, comforting ball, and that made it easier to experience these new sensations of being wrapped around Fred, and around herself, in such an intricate way. For the first time, different parts of her were feeling and doing different things. She wondered whether that was how Jingjing felt, being a collective made up of many parts. But she only had two parts: the part in the ball, and the part being knitted.

Naomi finished casting on and picked up Larry. Eagerly, she slid him into the first loop of Gorgeous Blue—and split the yarn! Gorgeous Blue squeaked indignantly. "Oops," Naomi said, hastily pulling the needle out.

"It's okay," Zohar said. "Just tug on it gently and keep working with it, and it will come back together."

"Sorry about that, pal," Larry said. "Let's give it another try."

Gorgeous Blue was nervous, but Naomi was more careful now, and she caught the loop nicely. Fred and Larry cheered as they crossed inside the loop. Naomi picked up the yarn and drew it up and around in a knit stitch. "Perfect!" Zohar told her. "Now pull it back—yes, just like that. Good! Keep going!"

And now there were three parts of Gorgeous Blue: the ball, the strand, and the fabric. Oh, how peculiar, but also how wonderful! She rubbed against herself a dozen different ways, exploring the sensations of tension and release, movement and entanglement. "Yes," she cried, "yes, this is what I was made for!"

Naomi knit three rows of twenty stitches each before someone said "Latkes are ready!" and she hastily piled the fabric and yarn and needles back in the box. Gorgeous Blue had no idea what latkes were, but apparently they weren't compatible with knitting.

"How did it go?" Jingjing asked, their voices a chorus of worry and hope.

"Great!" Larry yelled.

"Fantastic!" Fred shouted.

"It was... good," Gorgeous Blue said. She was a little stunned by the abrupt cessation of knitting just as she was really getting into it. It was hard to be reminded that whether she was knitted was entirely out of her control.

"I'm happy for you," Kinetic said distantly.

"You'll get your turn," Fred said. "I heard Zohar say that once the scarf is done, she'll get another ball of yarn so Naomi can make a hat."

"Oh, that would be wonderful," Jingjing said.

"A pleasant dream," Kinetic said, coiling tighter. "We shall see."

Zohar put the lid back on the box, and the knitting supplies settled down to wait for the next time Naomi was ready to knit.

In the days that followed, Gorgeous Blue experienced all the pleasures and challenges of being knitted. Naomi dropped stitches, split the yarn (always so uncomfortable), and at one point unraveled three rows to fix a twisted stitch. Being unraveled was so dizzying that Gorgeous Blue was left quite disoriented—that part of her was altered by its experience, wavy and compressed, and she didn't know whether to think of it as yarn again or not. But Naomi knit it back into fabric soon enough, and then Gorgeous Blue could relax back into her new tripartite existence. She enjoyed the sensation of wrapping around Naomi's fingers, and around Larry and Fred's silky smoothness. And to her surprise, she loved being fabric. Soon her fabric part was long enough to hang down from the needles and wave in the air, which was thrilling. She was anchored enough to be secure, and yet she felt free.

At last Naomi reached the end of Gorgeous Blue, and bound off her scarf. Gorgeous Blue was no longer only yarn, and was no longer three things at once. She was all fabric, and she was so happy. She spared a moment's grief for her snipped-off ends, and then she curled around Naomi's throat and gleamed with contentment.

Larry and Fred went back in the box, where Kinetic and Jingjing languished. But they didn't have to wait long. Zohar came to visit, and when Naomi showed her the scarf, she said, "Mazel tov! A beautiful piece of work. Do you want to come to the yarn store with me and pick out a second ball for a hat?"

Gorgeous Blue felt immensely triumphant as Naomi wore her into LYSistrata and she beheld all her old friends on their shelves and in their baskets. "I've been knitted!" she told them all. "And it's wonderful!"

Naomi had brought her tattered old label, and Deborah was happy to help her select a ball of Squooshy Bella #2119 (Stormy Ocean) for her next project. Gorgeous Blue watched with sympathy as the skein was draped on the swift and wound tenderly into a ball. As Naomi stood by the counter—with her scarf conveniently at countertop height—Gorgeous Blue whispered, "Don't be afraid. She's really nice."

"I'm not afraid," the new yarn said boldly. "My name is Lucille, and I'm ready to meet my knitter."

Lucille made great friends with Kinetic (who was quite shocked to be taken from the box) and Jingjing, and soon they were joined by Harold the cashmere yarn and Skippy the DPNs and, after Naomi learned about magic loop and returned Skippy to the store, Cinnamon the 48" circular and Fzzzzt the stitch holder and so many new lovely friends. And they all lived in Naomi's craft supply drawers, and on her coat hook, and in her closet, and in her dresser, and on her couch, and in the homes of her friends and relatives, and at hospitals and pet shelters... happily ever after.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to karanguni for research assistance! Please support your local yarn store. <3


End file.
